The cruise industry’s reputation is under siege.
Cruise line presidents used to be able to appear on cable news business shows and trot out their new products and intineraries and pontificate at length without a hint of controversy.
But as you can see in this interview on FOX BUSINESS, Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO and
There have been 8 Congressional hearings in the House and the Senate since December 2005 regarding issues of cruise passenger safety. One of the most talked about problems has been the issue of passengers going over-board from cruise ships.
Over the years, there has been a discussion about the problem and the necessity of requiring
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Over thirty years ago, I graduated from Tulane School of Law which had, and still has, one of the best maritime law curriculum programs in the U.S.
In law school, I took courses as a second and third year law school student in Maritime Personal Injury & Death, Maritime Jurisdiction, Maritime Insurance and Carriage of
Yesterday we mentioned that the first case filed in Galveston by a passenger following the infamous Triumph "poop cruise" was voluntarily dismissed. But today there is news that additional lawsuits were just filed in southeast Texas for damages alleged by passengers who sailed aboard the ill-fated Carnival cruise.
The Southeast Texas Record reports that
Our law firm handles cases on behalf of injured passengers and crew members against cruise lines. Other law firms handle auto accidents, dog bite cases and whatever may walk in the door. Our firm sues only cruise lines in cases involving serious injuries. That’s all that we do.
One of the cruise lines that we
A newspaper reports that police in Turkey are investigating the death of two shipyard workers who inhaled toxic fumes from a plumbing fixture yesterday as they were disassembling the MS Pacific cruise ship which had became famous as the "Love Boat" in the 1970’s television series.
“The Love Boat” was towed from Genoa to the seaside
A legal journal in Texas is reporting that the first and only lawsuit filed in Galveston County regarding the disabled Carnival Triumph cruise ship has ended with a voluntary dismissal.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kathy Marie Armstrong who was among the 3,000 or so passengers who sailed from Galveston on February 7 2013.
A newspaper in Alaska is reporting that the Celebrity Millennium cruise ship, which was suppose to have sailed on Friday from Seward, will be stuck in port until at least Tuesday due to engine problems.
The cruise ship arrived four hours late to Seward on Friday after experiencing an electrical problem with one of the
A criminologist for the cruise industry, Dr. James Alan Fox, published an article earlier this week which contains a great deal of unsubstantiated and misleading opinions about crime on cruise ships.
The cruise industry routinely hires Dr. Fox when Congress scrutinizes the cruise lines for not honestly reporting crimes. The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA)
Over 8 years ago George Smith went overboard from the Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas cruise ship in the Aegean Sea during his honeymoon cruise.
By all accounts, Royal Caribbean covered the true circumstances of the crime up. In the process, this less-than-honest cruise line sparked a national interest in what really happens on
Crew Center reports that the Spanish police arrested two crew members from the cruise ship MSC Magnífica, which docked recently in La Coruña, Spain on drug trafficking charges.
The crew members were caught with 15 kilos of cocaine on the cruise ship.
The following is an editorial / opinion piece by the Miami Herald which was published tonight:
"Crime on the high seas isn’t just about illegal commercial fishing practices, drug-running and Somalian pirates. Unfortunately, it also comes in the form of sexual assault, theft and suspicious disappearances on what are supposed to be pleasure cruises.
Under
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News Channel 12 WPRI in East Providence, Rhode Island aired a broadcast today about Senator Rockefeller’s newly introduced consumer legislation designed to require the cruise industry to report serious crimes which occur on the high seas.
Channel 12 says that "In the wake of recent horror stories on the high seas, lawmakers have introduced a
As promised, Senator Jay Rockefeller announced that he has introduced legislation seeking to eliminate the Section 883 exemption for cruise industry income derived from cruises that embark or disembark passengers in the U.S. Senator Rockefeller stated in a press release:
“The cruise industry can’t operate for free here in the U.S. It costs money to
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CBS travel expert Peter Greenberg has interesting comments on the recent crime statistics released by the three major cruise lines.
Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean posted 237 crimes which allegedly took place on their cruise ship over the last 2 to 3 years. This is the first time that the cruise industry has ever publicly
A local CBS station in Alabama reports that since January 2011, the U.S. Coast Guard publicly reported only 31 crimes aboard cruise ships. However, after Senator Rockefeller placed pressure on the cruise industry, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian on Thursday reported 94 crimes and 20 crimes, respectively, between October 2010 and the end of June of
Today a local NBC station in South Florida posted a video of the recent disclosure of cruise ship crime statistics.
You can read the article here.
The video (below) includes an interview with me about the provisions of the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2010 (CVSSA) which permitted cruise ship crimes and
Yesterday Royal Caribbean and a couple of other cruise lines "voluntarily" posted a limited amount of data on their websites regarding cruise crimes and disappearances of people from cruise ships.
Of course there was nothing remotely "voluntary" about the cruise lines’ conduct.
Last week Senator Rockefeller convened a hearing where he introduced legislation intended to
